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$1.50 Off Peak Fare A Sham?

Posted by
on October 11th, 2007 at 10:49 am

This might be the case according to Daily News transit reporter Pete Donohue who wrote an article about it yesterday. It seems the press release about the 8 public hearings contained comments about the proposed fare hike. What caught Pete’s attention was the New York City Transit version of the fare hike poster that came with the press release.

The poster said the following under the “Pay-Per-Ride Metrocard” section:

Establish a peak fare no higher than $2.25 and a discounted off-peak fare no higher than $1.75 for subway and/or local bus service, available with a Pay-Per-Ride Metrocard.”

The MTA sent out spokesman Jeremy Soffin to assure the public that the notices cite a higher price to give the MTA board “flexibility” to raise $580 million dollars over the next two years. According to Mr. Soffin, “this is not our proposal.” Unfortunately these are not the only surprises to Pete & many others. Here are a list of the other changes from this week’s poster & last month’s announced proposals:

    $6 minimum on all Pay-Per-Ride Metrocards
    Raising the price of an unlimited monthly Metrocard to $84. Last month’s proposals stated $82 as the highest price.
    Either raising the price of a 1 day fun pass to $7.50 or eliminating it altogether
    Introducing a 14 day unlimited Metrocard at a cost of $48. Last month’s proposals stated it would be $45
    The possibility of lowering the bonus on Metrocard purchases of $10 or more. The notice even mentions that the bonus might be eliminated altogether. Last month’s proposal either had a 20% bonus or no bonus with fares either being $2.25 during peak use & $1.50 during non peak use.

According to the MTA, if any specific section sees a higher price than what was in any of last month’s proposals, riders would see a lowered price in another category based on last month’s price list.

Some have already spoken out about the changes & fare hike in general. Lets start off with The Straphangers Campaign’s own Gene Russianoff who is calling a spade a spade in terms of the MTA using the word “flexibility” in describing the changes. Gene had this to say:

Flexibility is a code word for ‘it could happen. They are proposing the biggest fare hike in the history of the system.”

Some commuters have shared their opinions good & bad in regards to the proposed hikes according to Pete’s article. Here are a few comments:

    22 year old Long Island resident Lorraine Pheifer – “It really bothers me. It’s going up, up and up, and they keep it from us until it’s right on us.”
    45 year old Queens teacher Ava Manie – She feels any fare hikes are “outrageous” due to the poor service the MTA provides.
    44 year old Bronx lab technician Kimberly Halsey – “I’m not upset at all. It’s a good deal. You can float all over the city especially with a MetroCard. What’s a quarter?”

I laugh at clueless individuals such as Kimberly Halsey. While I like many others expect the fare hike to go through, it does not mean we agree with it on principal. If you are looking at it from a numbers perspective, a 25 cent increase does not sound like a big deal. However if you clearly examine how riders put up with inferior conditions, equipment, & service, it becomes clear as day why a fare hike is considered so undesirable.

The fact is the cost of traveling all over NYC on the subway is a steal. However one other fact is quite clear. We the riding public continued to get shafted year after year in terms of a properly functioned transit system. All because we get a great price does not mean we should put up with degrading equipment, stations that fall apart, officials who waste our money, among other things.

We are being treated as second class citizens by an agency who needs us to survive. Last I check, they should be doing whatever it takes to satisfy us if they want to stay afloat. Unfortunately many riders have the testicular fortitude to complain to they are blue in the face but lack the same testicular fortitude to demand changes & fair services/treatment from the MTA.

I sincerely hope that these upcoming hearings will serve as the continuation of change. I hope that we as a riding public are starting to mature & stand up for what we believe in. Blogs such as this one, Second Avenue Sagas, & Subway Blogger should not be the only lines of defense for the riding public. 3 individuals can only do so much to help our cause. Instead of complaining until you are blue in the face, join us & take a stand against the unjust service & treatment we as commuters deal with year in & year out!

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Rockaways Prepare To Get Pounded By Both Sides….

Posted by
on October 11th, 2007 at 10:05 am

Residents who reside anywhere within the Rockaway peninsula should prepare for massive headaches from mass transit & the roadways. The massive headaches will be the result of multiple construction projects that will take out multiple roadways & mass transit for stretches of time. Here are the changes that Rockaway residents will have to deal with:

    Two lanes & ramps on the Cross Bay Bridge will be closed until next May as part of a $57 million deck rehabilitation project.
    The Marine Parkway Bridge will be closed on weeknights from 11 p.m. to 5a.m. until Oct. 26.
    Rockaway Beach Blvd. is closed between Beach 67th & Beach 73rd Sts. as part of the Arverne by the Sea construction and not expected to reopen until the end of the month
    The A train will have service suspended between Howard Beach-JFK Airport & The Rockaways on weekends until Oct. 29. Shuttle buses will be in place that will travel over the Cross Bay Bridge.
    The Q35 will be suspended during the overnight deck work on the Marine Parkway Bridge.

Community Board 14 District Manager Jonathan Gaska shared comments with The Daily News about the construction. Here is what he had to say:

“We’re getting complaints about the situation but we need the work, even if it’s a little inconvenience now. Mass transportation is limited on a good day. You’d think that people from all the agencies would sit down and coordinate with each other.

However Mr. Gaska was not the only person to comment on the situation. Howard Beach Democrat Councilman Joe Addabbo had this to say about the Rockaway travel nightmare:

There are only a few north-south arteries that connect Rockaway with the mainland. And we never know when an emergency will arrive. God forbid something should happen and we need to evacuate Rockaway. I need assurances that the roadways will be reopened at a moment’s notice.”

The MTA has responded by saying emergency vehicles would be allowed on the Marine Parkway Bridge during the overnight closures. As far as Mr. Gaska’s comments about community involvement in the decision process MTA Bridges and Tunnels spokeswoman Joyce Mulvaney had this to say:

“We’ve kept everyone in the loop and looked into any potential impact the bridge work may cause. We’ve been working with the community from the get-go. The 37-year-old Cross Bay Bridge is in need of repair.”

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MTA Employees Taught To Think Like Terrorists

Posted by
on October 11th, 2007 at 8:50 am

10 days ago, I wrote about the MTA’s plan to increase emergency training. The purpose of the training was to better prepare employees to be able to identify & report suspicious activities as well as deal with crisis situations.

Today reports have started to surface about some of the training. The central message from these sessions was for employees to think like terrorists. To help facilitate this sort of thinking, the employees who were apart of the first session were provided excerpts from seized Al-Qaeda documents.

They were also shown an actual surveillance tape from a thwarted attack in 2001 against U.S. military personnel who depended on buses to get to a transit hub in Singapore. The terrorists saw that certain bike racks at the hub had storage containers & they saw that as a great place to hide explosives. The plan was for the explosives to go off as commuters passed through the hub.

Some more details about the 3 hour session enlighten us that the employees were taught about the following:

    How terrorists select targets
    How terrorists gather surveillance
    How they plan & carry out attacks

An article by New York Daily News transit reporter Pete Donohue shares some more interesting tidbits including more details as to why terrorists focused on that transit hub in Singapore in 2001. Here are some excerpts from the article:

“They do their homework,” Turner, an employe of the EAI Corp., which along with the feds, MTA and the National Transportation Institute created the curriculum. “These plans take days, weeks, months or years.”

The detective also played a dramatization showing a “plot” to bomb a major transportation hub in the U.S. that included some strategies terrorists have used in the past, including extensive surveillance.

In that scenario, a conductor spotted one of the pieces of unattended luggage. A rapid response included the evacuation of passengers and moving the train to a more remote location. Turner said a major thrust of the course was to get transit workers, who in years past griped their training was lacking, to focus on behavior more than exterior appearances.

AMNY also has a featured story about the first emergency training session. Their main transit reporter Marlene Naanes has written an article about the session which includes having a discussion with Q train operator James Gamble. Here are some excerpts from her article:

Q train operator James Gamble is equipped with excerpts of al-Qaida training manuals and a rundown of a terrorist attack in Japan.
The first round of security and emergency response training classes for transit employees began last week, a reiteration of MTA protocol for some, but eye-opening for others. “A lot of it we already do,” Gamble said after a class Wednesday. “Showing people how terrorists plan their attack, that’s new.”

Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint shared his opinions about the training session by saying:

“For too long, we have stood by ourselves in demanding that transit workers are trained to react and respond to the dangers they face on the job every day. This initiative gives our members some of the tools they need to face the new reality of our transit system after 9/11.”

I personally agree with Roger in saying it is about time. I feel it is quite pathetic that it has taken the MTA & government 6+ years to provide such a detailed training session. These sessions should have happened at worst by the end of 2001! One could argue that months would have been too long. If that is the case, what words can describe a 6+ year delay! This is inexcusable & whomever is responsible for taking this long to implement such a common sense protocol should be fired immediately!

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Bids For Hudson Rail Yards Due Today

Posted by
on October 11th, 2007 at 6:32 am

This morning’s edition of AMNY has a story about the Hudson Rail Yards. The story mentions that bids are due today for anyone wanting the rights to the 26 acre property. These 26 acres are considered to be a sacred opportunity that will never be available again in Manhattan’s future. The land’s developments are seen as a crucial project for Manhattan’s future.

While many of the biggest names in New York real estate are expect to submit different bids, the vision for the land will not be different amongst them. Developers hope to turn the 26 acres into a thriving waterfront filled with hotels, housing, office towers, shopping, & parks.

Why can’t the property remain as rail yards? What is the obsession with building the same things on every square inch of NYC? I am all for development & rebuilding neighborhoods. However I do not support every bit of free space being seen as potentially developed properties. Why do some have the desire to see everyone in NYC squished together like a family of roaches? Sometimes I wish I was back in the suburbs where I had plenty of space & a sense of non squished freedom!

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MTA Looking To Increase Service On 4 Lines

Posted by
on October 11th, 2007 at 6:12 am

The MTA released a report this past Friday detailing possible plans to expand service on 4 lines. The purpose of the expanded service would be to accommodate the projected additional riders the system would receive in relation to the proposed congestion pricing plan.

The 4 lines that would see increased service would be the 1, C, E, & F. The agency expects approximately 78,000 car trips a day to be taken off the road within the 5 boroughs due to the congestion pricing plan. Here are the proposed service expansions by line:

    1: Increase service to accommodate riders who choose not to drive within the congestion pricing zone during the afternoon hours
    C: Expand trains from 8 to 10 subway cars to accommodate Brooklyn neighborhoods with a high number of commuters who drive
    E: Add 4 additional trips around the start & end of the morning rush hour to accommodate southeast Queens commuters. The additional trips would kick in 30 minutes before & after the morning rush.
    F: Add 4 additional trips around the start & end of the morning rush hour to accommodate southeast Queens commuters. The additional trips would kick in 30 minutes before & after the morning rush.

According to the report, the MTA would need to purchase an additional 46 subway cars to implement these proposals.

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